Rail is fundamental to the country’s prosperity. After all, our railway is vital in connecting workers to jobs, businesses to markets, and people to their families and friends. However, layers of regulation built up over 25 years mean there are now over 55 million rail fare options, resulting in understandable confusion for customers.
According to the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which comprises the companies that run our railways:
Britain’s fares system has failed to keep pace with the rise of modern technology or how people work and travel today, and with part time working and self-employment having increased by over a third in 22 years, the products we can offer don’t always match that flexibility. Many passengers also find fares complicated and confusing with the latest study showing that only around a third of rail customers are very confident that they bought the best value ticket for their last journey.
Working together, the rail industry want fares and ticketing regulation, which was originally set out in 1995, updated so we can offer our customers an easier to use range of fares and deliver improvements in ticket buying technology.
Have your say
The RDG survey, which is part of a joint consultation between the rail industry and passenger watchdog Transport Focus, is about getting your views on the type of system and structure you want to see. These will be used to develop proposals to government that would aim to be revenue neutral, which means that any changes to some fares would need to be balanced elsewhere – the consultation looks at some of the possible trade-offs involved in this.
Ethical insurance
Not only are we Britain’s most ethical insurance company, we campaign for sustainable transport. Sometimes that means protesting until a school gets the zebra crossing they’ve been refused or running 60 roadshows this year to encourage people out of their cars, or fixing bicycles for free. We also launched Green Transport Week and helped establish Car Free Day and Twenty’s Plenty to name just a few.
We’ve been campaigning for sustainable transport in this way for over 27 years with the help of people like you. Supporting this work is easy – you simply have to take out home insurance, cycle insurance, travel insurance and breakdown cover and we take care of the rest. We provide an excellent level of cover while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.
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